When Celina Leroy posted a selfie on Facebook in February, it was a major milestone for the 24-year-old aspiring model and actress. Leroy was born with a port-wine stain birthmark on her face, and she was showing it to her friends and followers—uncovered—for the first time.

Port-wine stains occur in about three of every 1,000 people, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. They're caused by swollen blood vessels, which give a reddish-purplish hue to a certain area of skin. Most often, they occur on the face and deepen in color as a child gets older. They exist for life, sometimes growing thicker with time. Treatments like laser therapy, surgery and tattooing can often eliminate or lessen the appearance of the birthmarks, but there's no guarantee.

Leroy was born with a port-wine stain covering her chin and cheek, as well as part of her bottom lip. She tells SELF that doctors knew it was a port-wine stain immediately, and that she'd have it for life. Worried it would affect her, her parents had her start laser treatments when she was one years old.

"My dad and my mom were worried I’d be made fun of as a kid," Leroy says. "They wanted me to have treatments right away. If you start early with treatments the birthmark is more likely to go away."

Celina Leroy at the age of one (left) and age 7. Image Credit: Courtesy of Celina Leroy

She says the treatments were traumatic for her as a child, and she still remembers the smell of burning flesh as the zapping device moved across her face. She went for lasering sessions once a month for a year before stopping.

"There wasn’t any progress, so my mom was like this isn’t working," she says. "And she didn’t want to keep doing it so I stopped for a long time until I was like 14 or 15."

While growing up in East Hampton, New York, Leroy was bullied in school. It prompted her to restart the painful treatments.

"When I was like 12 years old, I remember one girl was like, 'Oh my god, Celina you’re really pretty, but if you didn’t have that birthmark then you’d definitely be popular,'" Leroy says. "I think I became really insecure about it, and it was harder for me to make friends because I was like, 'They think I’m ugly.'"

After two years of treatments, the laser failed yet again to eliminate the mark. The part of the port-wine stain over her lip also had made her lips uneven with time—larger on the side where the birthmark was—and Leroy asked her parents for plastic surgery to fix it. A doctor cut off parts of her lip to even it out.

"I was in high school," she says of getting surgery at 16. "I was like super self conscious and just wanted to be like everyone else."

Leroy in recovery from her lip surgery (left) and with makeup post-surgery. Image Credit: Courtesy of Celina Leroy

Leroy figured out how to cover the mark with makeup, and she started wearing it all the time: to the pool, at sleepovers. Most people didn't know she even had it. She had surgery again this August, when her lips again grew uneven.

But this February, as she embarked on her dreams of modeling and acting, Leroy became tired of covering up. When she booked a show for New York Fashion week, she decided to show up backstage sans makeup. The reaction from people both surprised and empowered her.

"It was just interesting seeing people’s reaction to me not wearing makeup and being bold to it," she says. "[Before, I was] getting all this attention from people being like, 'You’re so beautiful in this photoshoot.' Everyone was saying how great I look, and I wondered if people would still think I’m pretty if I show my birthmark. Everyone was really supportive, and it just it made me feel really good."

That's when she took to Facebook and posted her first true selfie. More than 250 of her friends liked the picture and shared supportive comments like, "I never even knew you had a birthmark. It looks awesome! You should rock it more often." It gave Leroy even more confidence. Now, she says she wants to do some photoshoots and movies without covering it up.

"I want to not wear makeup ever, but then I also like the way I look like with makeup, so I’m trying to figure it out," she says. "I’m trying to talk to photographers and see if they’re into doing it without makeup. It depends on the jobs."

Ultimately, she hopes that sharing her story will help change perceptions about people with birthmarks and empower those who have them.

"Birth defects shouldn’t be associated with negativity," she says. "I want a culture where you embrace the things that make you different instead of trying to hide them."